Ruling party, opposition groups discuss judiciary questions for fulfilling EU conditions for candidacy
The ruling Georgian Dream party and four opposition groups met Wednesday to discuss the domestic judiciary system, in a bid to address the conditions set by the EU for Georgia’s membership candidate status. Photo: Parliament of Georgia press office.
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The ruling Georgian Dream and four parliamentary opposition groups involved in the GD-proposed working format for gaining the European Union membership candidate status for the country held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss issues of the judiciary system in the country.
To identify the problems in the judiciary, the parties discussed two documents, one by the GD and another by the Citizens opposition, which assessed the results of court reforms in the country.
Anri Okhanashvili, Head of Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee from the ruling party, said following the meeting that the parties exchanged their views over the moves required to benefit the country’s court system, noting that the non-governmental organisations, working on legal issues, were invited to the state legislature on Thursday to speak out their opinions.
We are open to discuss all the issues related to the fulfilment of the 12 conditions by the European Commission with all interested parties”, Okhanashvili said.
Opposition MP from the Citizens party, Levan Ioseliani, suggested that their document over the judiciary covered the problems in the system being accumulated for years and needed to be addressed.
Three opposition parties and several MPs have refused to join the ruling party-proposed working group which was formed three weeks ago to meet the priorities set by the EU for the country to receive the EU membership candidate status next year.
Despite the calls from MEPs and domestic non-governmental organisations to work together with the ruling party, the three opposition parties launched a parallel format last week, expressing distrust of the GD.
Two opposition MPs in the Georgian Parliament, Vakhtang Megrelishvili and Levan Ioseliani, on Tuesday condemned the move by three opposition parties and several MPs to boycott a working group recently proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and instead create a parallel format last week to work on Georgia’s European Union membership candidate status.
Plans of the “radical opposition” to form a technocratic Government in Georgia have failed, with the group now trying to “discredit” the state legislature through the formation of a parallel working format for work on Georgia’s EU candidacy, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuahsvili said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Gia Volski, a ruling party MP and the Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, on Tuesday said the domestic “radical opposition” had “already openly declared” that causing a destabilisation in the country remained its “strategic plan”.
MEP Viola von Cramon on Friday said she disapproved of the plans of a part of the Georgian opposition to create parallel groups and boycott a working format proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party for the country to fulfil the European Union's 12-point conditions and obtain the membership candidate status in December.
Anri Okhanashvili, the chair of the Georgian Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the ruling team would continue to “actively work” on the 12-point conditions outlined by the European Union for granting the country the membership candidate status, and stressed that “the involvement of all political parties and stakeholders will be ensured in this process”.